Earlier this year, Fano Guitars announced the Alt de Facto GF6 model, which is inspired by and loosely based on the Fender Starcaster models from the 70s. I finally had a chance to play one for a short period of time and have a few thoughts about it.
One of the things you can’t really tell based on the pictures is the size of the guitar body. I’ve owned a few 335-style guitars, and I’ve always felt the body was too large for me. I would say the GF6 is roughly the same size as a 335, but the offset body makes it much more comfortable to me. While sitting down, the guitar didn’t feel too big, and my right hand and arm were able to rest comfortably on the guitar.
I’m somewhat ambivalent about factory-relic’d guitars and Fano can sometimes go over the top, but the sanded neck on the GF6 felt great. I would describe the neck size as similar to modern Fender C-shaped necks, which I find to be very comfortable. I should note that if you’re really not into relic’d guitars, Fano now has the option to not get the relic job on new guitars. The guitar I played had a light relic job, and I thought it looked pretty good and not as fake as some of the heavily relic’d models that you sometimes see.
The guitar I played had a maple body, which I thought would make it too bright sounding for my taste. However, perhaps due to the larger size of the guitar, it had a nice, sweet tone that had a really nice ringing quality to it. It also had Fralin P90s, which I’m sure added a bit to the ringing quality of the guitar. I think if I were going to spec one out for a custom build, I’d probably lean towards a mahogany body, a maple top, a rosewood fretboard, and the Lollar Imperial humbuckers that Fano offers as an option. However, the P90s sounded great, and I would give those another shot before making my final decision.
Overall, I really liked the Fano Alt de Facto GF6 that I played. It was very comfortable to play, sounded great, and it had a great vibe to it.